History of Linux and FOSS

 History of Linux

For the history of Linux, it is best to understand more about Unix. Unix was made in 1969 by Bell Labs by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. It was intended to be a multi-user system and was rewritten with C in 1973 for portability. Unix was released to the public by Bell Labs with Version 6 in 1975 for general use. 

In 1983, Robert Stallman created the GNU Project to create a free Unix- like system which is something that Linux eventually evolved from. Linus Torvalds started Linux as a personal hobby project back in 1991. This was a similar model to the GNU Project and was licensed under the GNU General Public License.

In 1992, the GNU Project and the Linux Kernel were merged under the GNU GPL which allowed for an open-source version of Linux. There are different distributions that came out like Debian and Slackware in 1993 allowing for more distributions and flavors later on. There are three main distributions today that most Linux systems are derived from. They include Debian, Red Hat and Arch Linux mainly, which are where the different flavors originate from.

History of FOSS

FOSS is something that grew out of the general cooperation of building software in the 1960’s and 1970’s. It was built on the concept of free software which Robert Stallman’s GNU Project and Free Software Foundation helped with the development of Free and Open-Source Software later on using Linux and other distributions. The Free Software Foundation was made in 1985 by Robert Stallman.

In 1998, the term open-source was coined by the Open-Source Initiative which helped the development of different companies and organizations contributing to other open-source projects in the corporate world. This is something that is happening still today. Linux is used heavily in web servers, cloud computing and in mobile devices like Android.

Knowledge Byte

The history of Linux is something that I have studied for in college and also when studying for the LPI Linux Essentials certification that I have. There are some ways to study for the Linux Essentials which include a study plan, having three or more resources and also keeping a schedule of each section that you have selected for your study sessions. It is also good practice to eat healthier and get enough sleep, so you are not having issues with energy or your mental health.

Conclusion

These are some of the events that contributed to Linux and FOSS. There are companies that continue to contribute to open-source projects like Git and Apache Server. The development of more distributions and flavors is getting Linux to be a more portable operating system than Windows. Linux is now used to power corporate systems and supercomputers along with embedded systems.